SMCP Secures Singapore Court Victory in Battle Over Disputed Share Transfer

PARIS – SMCP will get its shares back.

The Singapore High Court has ruled that Dynamic Treasure Group must return the 15.5 percent stake it holds to European TopSoho, the parent company of SMCP, which had been transferred illegally.

The court ordered that Dynamic Treasure Group has one week to return the shares, or appeal the decision. In a statement, the company said it will “keep the market informed about the effective completion of the return of this stake.”

This is the latest twist and turn in a case stemming from 2021, when 15.5 percent of the share capital of Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot parent company SMCP “disappeared” from France and reappeared in the British Virgin Islands two-and-a-half months later.

This follows a similar decision by the English High Court in July 2024, which canceled the sale of the shares to Dynamic Treasure Group.

It’s also the second ruling in the case within a month as it winds through courts and regulators in multiple jurisdictions.

In June, French regulatory body Autorieté des Marchés Financiers (AMF) fined the company and its shareholders for a series of irregularities.

First, the regulatory body sanctioned former majority shareholder European TopSoho, director of European TopSoho Chenran Qiu and Dynamic Treasure Group, which received the shares, for disclosure violations and market manipulation.

The shares were moved from Luxembourg to the British Virgin Islands without notifying the authorities. They effectively “went missing” until they reappeared in the accounts of Dynamic Treasure Group, also controlled by Qiu, weeks later. European TopSoho had sold them to DTG for a symbolic one-euro price.

In the interim, European TopSoho also issued a press release denying Qiu was involved in Dynamic Treasure Group, misleading the market.

As a result, the AMF issued a series of fines. Qiu was sanctioned with 1 million euros, European TopSoho 400,000 euros, and Dynamic Treasure Group 300,000 for a total of 1.7 million euros.

Separately, the AMF fined SMCP 20,000 euros for an unrelated leak of their financial information in 2021, when it accidentally published quarterly results on its website before market close.

The London-based GLAS is the trustee for European TopSoho creditors including BlackRock, Carlyle, Anchorage, Boussard and Gavaudan that united to save the group with the issuance of bonds, and effectively SMCP’s largest shareholder. They announced last year their intention to offload 37 percent of the group’s shares.

That move could trigger a mandatory takeover action under French law if a single purchaser snaps them up.

SMCP has been on the road to recovery as it seeks to replace the market share it lost in China by expanding into new regions in Asia, including the Philippines, Indonesia and India.

It recruited former Loewe executive Kleine Tan to take up the role of chief executive officer of SMCP Asia in April, tasked with implementing the company’s “strategic road map in the region, notably our network optimization in China,” she said in a statement shared first with WWD at the time.